Emulate next

Next.js adapter for embedding emulators directly in a Next.js app via @emulators/adapter-next. Use when the user needs to embed emulators in Next.js, set up same-origin OAuth for Vercel preview deployments, create an emulate catch-all route handler, configure Auth.js/NextAuth with embedded emulators, add persistence to embedded emulators, or wrap next.config with withEmulate. Triggers include "Next.js emulator", "adapter-next", "embedded emulator", "same-origin OAuth", "Vercel preview", "createEmulateHandler", "withEmulate", or any task requiring emulators inside a Next.js app.

install
source · Clone the upstream repo
git clone https://github.com/vercel-labs/emulate
Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/
T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/vercel-labs/emulate "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/skills/next" ~/.claude/skills/vercel-labs-emulate-next && rm -rf "$T"
manifest: skills/next/SKILL.md
source content

Next.js Integration

The

@emulators/adapter-next
package embeds emulators directly into a Next.js App Router app, running them on the same origin. This is particularly useful for Vercel preview deployments where OAuth callback URLs change with every deployment.

Install

npm install @emulators/adapter-next @emulators/github @emulators/google

Only install the emulators you need. Each

@emulators/*
package is published independently, keeping serverless bundles small.

Route Handler

Create a catch-all route that serves emulator traffic:

// app/emulate/[...path]/route.ts
import { createEmulateHandler } from '@emulators/adapter-next'
import * as github from '@emulators/github'
import * as google from '@emulators/google'

export const { GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE } = createEmulateHandler({
  services: {
    github: {
      emulator: github,
      seed: {
        users: [{ login: 'octocat', name: 'The Octocat' }],
        repos: [{ owner: 'octocat', name: 'hello-world', auto_init: true }],
      },
    },
    google: {
      emulator: google,
      seed: {
        users: [{ email: 'test@example.com', name: 'Test User' }],
      },
    },
  },
})

This creates the following routes:

  • /emulate/github/**
    serves the GitHub emulator
  • /emulate/google/**
    serves the Google emulator

Auth.js / NextAuth Configuration

Point your provider at the emulator paths on the same origin:

import GitHub from 'next-auth/providers/github'

const baseUrl = process.env.VERCEL_URL
  ? `https://${process.env.VERCEL_URL}`
  : 'http://localhost:3000'

GitHub({
  clientId: 'any-value',
  clientSecret: 'any-value',
  authorization: { url: `${baseUrl}/emulate/github/login/oauth/authorize` },
  token: { url: `${baseUrl}/emulate/github/login/oauth/access_token` },
  userinfo: { url: `${baseUrl}/emulate/github/user` },
})

No

oauth_apps
need to be seeded. When none are configured, the emulator skips
client_id
,
client_secret
, and
redirect_uri
validation.

Font Tracing for Serverless

Emulator UI pages use bundled fonts. Wrap your Next.js config to include them in the serverless trace:

// next.config.mjs
import { withEmulate } from '@emulators/adapter-next'

export default withEmulate({
  // your normal Next.js config
})

If you mount the catch-all at a custom path, pass the matching prefix:

export default withEmulate(nextConfig, { routePrefix: '/api/emulate' })

Persistence

By default, emulator state is in-memory and resets on every cold start. To persist state across restarts, pass a

persistence
adapter.

Custom Adapter (Vercel KV, Redis, etc.)

import { createEmulateHandler } from '@emulators/adapter-next'
import * as github from '@emulators/github'

const kvAdapter = {
  async load() { return await kv.get('emulate-state') },
  async save(data: string) { await kv.set('emulate-state', data) },
}

export const { GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE } = createEmulateHandler({
  services: { github: { emulator: github } },
  persistence: kvAdapter,
})

File Persistence (Local Dev)

For local development,

@emulators/core
ships a file-based adapter:

import { filePersistence } from '@emulators/core'

// persists to a JSON file
persistence: filePersistence('.emulate/state.json'),

How Persistence Works

  • Cold start: The adapter loads state from the persistence adapter. If found, it restores the full Store and token map (skipping seed). If not found, it seeds from config and saves the initial state.
  • After mutating requests (POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE): State is saved. Saves are serialized via an internal queue to prevent race conditions.
  • No persistence configured: Falls back to pure in-memory. Seed data re-initializes on every cold start.

How It Works

  1. Incoming request:
    /emulate/github/login/oauth/authorize?client_id=...
  2. Parse: service =
    github
    , rest =
    /login/oauth/authorize
  3. Strip prefix: A new
    Request
    is created with the stripped path and forwarded to the GitHub Hono app
  4. Rewrite response: HTML
    action
    and
    href
    attributes, CSS
    url()
    font references, and
    Location
    headers get the service prefix prepended
  5. Persist: After mutating requests, state is saved via the persistence adapter

Limitations

  • Requires the Node.js runtime (not Edge) since emulators use
    crypto.randomBytes
  • Concurrent serverless instances writing to the same persistence adapter use last-write-wins semantics (acceptable for dev/preview traffic)

Config Reference

createEmulateHandler(config)

FieldTypeDescription
services
Record<string, EmulatorEntry>
Map of service name to emulator config
persistence?
PersistenceAdapter
Optional persistence adapter for state across cold starts

Each

EmulatorEntry
:

FieldTypeDescription
emulator
EmulatorModule
The emulator package (e.g.
import * as github from '@emulators/github'
)
seed?
Record<string, unknown>
Seed data matching the service's config schema

withEmulate(nextConfig, options?)

Wraps a Next.js config to include emulator font files in the serverless output trace. Call it around your exported config in

next.config.mjs
or
next.config.ts
.

OptionTypeDefaultDescription
routePrefix
string
"/emulate"
The path prefix where the catch-all route is mounted

PersistenceAdapter

interface PersistenceAdapter {
  load(): Promise<string | null>
  save(data: string): Promise<void>
}

The built-in

filePersistence(path)
from
@emulators/core
provides a file-based adapter for local development.